ARTICLES ABOUT DELTA BURKE BY DATE - PAGE 3

Confronting the new fall television season is like walking into your old neighborhood bar after an absence of some time. Some familiar friends are still around, though many of them look a little rougher around the edges. Some characters look vaguely familiar, but you haven`t really gotten to know them. And always those new people-most too loud or obnoxious or unattractive for your taste. Many of those new TV people this season have a young and pretty look. It's hard to imagine that there is one under-30 actor or actress out of work in Hollywood.

Suzanne Sugarbaker, the pig and Delta Burke-they`re gone but apparently not forgiven. Written off and written out of the redesigned "Designing Women," each nonetheless weighed in with a presence of sorts as the Top 10 CBS series shot the first half-hour of its sixth season last week, trying to put its winter of discontent and summer of upheaval behind it. Telltale reminders of the acrimony that marked Burke's off-season ouster in a power...

Career high note Sir Georg Solti's final Chicago appearances as conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will take place this spring, and it looks like the maestro is going to wrap up his 22-year career here with a most memorable performance. According to the CSO's most recent Centennial Season News Release, the April 11 and 13 concerts will feature "George Solti, Soprano." Career low note Open mouth, insert foot: Gen. Alfred Gray, commandant of the Marines, spoke Friday at an Executives Club luncheon and said he hangs around convenience stores to find out what the American people really think about the war. Then he added that there's a joke going around Washington that "7-Eleven stores may close because Saddam Hussein has called back all of the people working there."

Clout call A powerful constituent called Sen. Alan Dixon's office to say he didn`t want his son sent to the war in the gulf. But the constituent also didn`t want it to look like he pulled strings. So he asked if Dixon could arrange for his son's whole division to stay home. The senator's aide laughed, changed the subject and checked the phone for small electronic objects. Cabinet makers Is there a power struggle going on among Jim Edgar's advisers over who should head the Illinois Department of Transportation?

Martin Mull will provide the voice of "Dad" on the new half-hour animated comedy series "Family Dog," now in production for future broadcast on CBS. The series, from executive producers Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton and Dennis Klein, centers on the day-to-day concerns and dog-sized adventures of a nameless family dog. Other voices are Danny Mann as the Family Dog, Molly Cheek as Mom, Zak Epstein as son Billy and Cassie Cole as daughter Buffy. Elsewhere at CBS, Delta Burke and Gerald McRaney will star as a couple who are inadvertently embroiled in a murder mystery, set against a New Orleans backdrop, in "Love and Curses," a romantic comedy also in development for future airing.

"This is not the Roseanne Barr show. If anyone goes, it will be her, not us." -Harry Thomason, executive producer of "Designing Women," on reported grumblings on the set by actress Delta Burke. "You cannot enrage the public with the public's money." -Phyllis Berney, a member of the National Endowment for the Arts advisory council, on the anti-obscenity pledge required for future funding. "I play golf, not politics." -Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, on the controversy over the absence of blacks at many clubs where PGA tournaments are played.

There have always been fat people on television. Some have ignored it and thrived: Jackie Gleason and Raymond Burr. Some have undergone a transformation: Is there anyone who will forget Oprah Winfrey's diet? Some celebrate their bulk: Roseanne Barr. However television personalities have chosen to deal with the expansion of their waistlines, few have elected to deal with it in as forthright, honest and effective a manner as Delta Burke. Monday night's episode of "Designing Women," one of the most consistently funny and clever shows on television, is a remarkable combination of humor, sensitivity and social message.

Politics in motion The Midlothian branch of Secretary of State Jim Edgar's driver's license renewal facility is about to get a new boss: Maryann Dvorak. And, gee, doesn`t that name sound familiar? A spokesman for Edgar, the Republican candidate for governor who needs to not get totally killed by Cook County voters next November, confirms that Maryann is, indeed, the wife of Cook County Republican Chairman Jim Dvorak. And the spokesman confirms that her initial hiring in August, 1988, for a $26,600-a-year job was the result of "obviously, a political referral."

Getting back at all the tabloid gossip about Delta Burke's extra poundage, CBS` "Designing Women" has set Dec. 11 for the episode that tackles the issue head-on. In "They Shoot Fat Women, Don`t They?", former beauty queen Suzanne (Burke) attends her high school reunion, where she overhears a former schoolmate say: "I used to think she was gorgeous, but now we`re talking Roseanne Barr country." Burke plans to hit the talk-show circuit to promote the episode.

Now that the new television season is underway, I think it's time for a serious appraisal of what we`re seeing. We`re seeing lots of new dos. Consider that "Designing Women" won its only 1988-89 Emmy for hairstyling, yet three of its four women stars are sporting new styles for the 1989-90 season. What does this tell us? Probably that actors get tired of wearing their hair the same old way all the time, just like you and me. Or at least that the shows` hairstylists get tired of styling the actors` hair the same old way all the time.